


Fine, I'll Do It Myself

by Sciencelings



Series: Avengers Reborn [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Awesome Carol Danvers, BAMF Peter Parker, Dehydration, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Malnutrition, Nebula (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Deserves Better, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Temporary Character Death, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, lots of the characters are just mentioned as I don't know if im making a part 2, mcu young avengers speculation, remember the endgame trailer? just that with Peter instead of Tony, the surviving avengers aren't assholes they're just concerned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 03:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18229394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sciencelings/pseuds/Sciencelings
Summary: An AU where Tony gets dusted instead of Peter and how that turns out





	Fine, I'll Do It Myself

One moment, Peter was surrounded by beat up superheroes, wizards and aliens, getting back up after a lost fight on a broken planet, but the next, things started to go wrong. Peter’s spider-sense went off a moment before the bug lady disappeared into dust. 

 

One by one, the horror unfolded. Everyone was just… dissolving without having a clue what was happening. The buff alien guy, the blonde 80’s guy, the wizard, but worst of all, Tony. 

 

Peter wished that there were any noises outside of last breaths and last words. ‘Something’s happening,’ ‘Quill?’ ‘oh man,’ ‘There was no other way,’ and worst of all, ‘It’s okay kid,’ Tony’s last words as his legs disappeared from under him and tumbled into Peter's arms as one last accidental hug. And before he could process what was happening, Tony was gone. With only ash stuck on Peter’s suit remaining. 

 

For a moment, the slightly warm ash felt like blood on his hands. Hauntingly similar to when he held Ben as he bled out. It had felt so similar to when he lost Ben, just as quick, it took just as long for him to come back into his body after the shock. The silence was deafening and he felt empty. Especially when he didn’t disappear with the rest of them. 

 

“He did it.” The only one left, the cyborg woman stated with her eyes down in her own way of sorrow. Peter didn’t even recognize the tears on his face making marks through the lingering ashes of his mentor. His hands shook uncontrollably and he saw himself fall to his knees. 

 

It took him hours to get back up and only did so with the help from the cyborg woman. She looked scary but she helped him up when he felt like he couldn’t carry himself. She didn’t try to reassure him that everything was fine when it clearly was not. He just helped him stand and told him that they had to leave the desolate planet if they had any hope of surviving. 

 

So Peter stood, and they left to find either Nebulas escape ship or the guardians ship. They did find the guardians ship, however, it was damaged from Thanos throwing a moon at the planet. They would have to spend days to fix it just to get it in the air, not just able to fly at the speed of light through the endless void of space. He hoped that they even had the resources to do it. He really didn’t have much else to hope on. 

 

Peter still shook when he connected wires in hopes to get the power working, the battery had been saved thank god but there wasn’t much else to celebrate about. He figured out the alien tech and tools with surprising ease, but he couldn’t focus on being proud of himself. He just had to work. All he had was the hope that May was still alive and the chance that this could all be reversed. All he wanted was her arms around him, to hear her voice. He was stuck with an alien stranger with a low chance of getting off of the ground. If they couldn’t get the ship to work, then they would starve to death or the strange air of the planet would slowly poison them.

 

It was the next mission and nothing else. Peter didn’t have time to grieve. He managed to get the power to work, in the hologram files of the ship, he found blueprints of it so that they could fix it correctly instead of improvising everything. Peter worked on fixing the main console that had been hit directly with a fist-sized piece of the moon. The sound of a zap of electricity broke his concentration. It was Nebula. She had popped out the metal plating attached to her eye and saw that it was damaged. She was trying to fix it but she seemed to have a bad vantage point. 

 

“You need any help?” Peter stood and approached her. 

 

“I’m fine.” She stated. 

 

“Yeah but it’s probably easier if I help out.” He shrugged and she didn’t push him away when he took a look at her circuitry. He was very gentle with her sensory wiring as he reconnected it and replaced a few of them. Soon her eye was working again and responded when she wanted to move it around. 

 

“Does it hurt at all? Do you want me to adjust anything?” She gave him an odd look as if no one had ever cared about her comfort before. 

 

“No, I’m fine. Thank you. Now that my sensors are working, I can be of more help.” She moved on quickly. 

 

When they got their shit together, they turned out to be an oddly productive team. Nebula didn’t need sleep and Peter didn’t dare try to. She let him talk to keep the air from being silent, she didn’t complain when he rambled about earth things that she didn’t understand. The didn’t need to take breaks except when Peter needed to raid the food supply, and with Nebulas knowledge of alien tech and Peters adaptability, they worked strong for several straight days. 

 

Eventually, Peter hit the point where his mortal body needed rest. Nebula told him that he was no good to them if he was exhausted which he knew was her way of looking out for him. Peter didn’t normally mind sleeping, he enjoyed it actually, but he was afraid of dreaming. 

 

His mind did it when Ben died and after the shit with Toomes, and he knew that his nightmares would get worse with his trauma and he avoided sleeping just because he was afraid of how bad it was bound to get after this mountain of new ones. But he didn’t have much of a choice as he sat down on one of the beds in the guardian's ship, he assumed in the captain's room, and he passed out almost imminently. 

 

He knew he’d have a nightmare but that self-awareness didn’t stop him from having one. His subconscious mind kept on merging Ben and Tony into the same person with the same death, the same murder. It kept on trying to convince him of things that they said, like that they were disappointed in him and that he could’ve done more, all that fun stuff. 

 

Peter kept hearing their heartbeats slow and stop, he kept feeling what was left on his hands even though he was wearing the suit when Tony… disappeared. His hands kept feeling hot and dry like he had put his hands in the burning sand or they felt warm and wet like he had Bens blood on his hands again. It felt too real. It felt too raw. Too recent. Like the first time Flash lashed out at him after Ben died and he locked himself in the bathroom so that no one would see him cry. Peter was sure that Flash didn’t know about Ben and was just doing the regular dick routine but the pain was too fresh and he couldn’t just act like nothing was wrong after something like that. 

 

He felt like he was being crushed, choked, set on fire, drowned, all at the same time and forced himself to wake up, gasping for breath. His lungs begged for air and he desperately tried to stop himself from shaking. His eyes were blurred with hot tears and he frantically wiped them away to see Nebula standing at the entrance of the room. 

 

“Shit, sorry. Was I…” Peter didn’t want to ask if he was screaming or anything. Also near this badass hardened alien assassin. She didn’t have the nicest aura around her. He didn’t think that she would hurt him but she didn’t seem remotely like a comforting figure. 

 

“What was he like? Your father, the armored man.” She clarified, moving past the whole nightmare thing. Peter sat up in the cot and took a moment to answer.

 

“He was… god, he’s the best person I know. He’s brave and kind and so so smart, he cared so much about everyone, even the people that had fucked him over. He took the blame for things, even if they weren’t his fault and he believed in me when no one else did. He wasn’t a hero because he was experimented on or had decades of training… he was a hero because of his brain. He literally made himself a hero with barely anything and a lifetime of trauma. He’s, someone I wish I was.” Peter smiled a little when he thought about his mentor. “What was your sister like?”

 

“It took years to see each other that way. Thanos wasn’t like your father, he was manipulative and sadistic. I vowed to destroy him and I don’t plan on going back on that promise. Gamora and I only felt like sisters for the last couple of years. But I didn’t deserve her. She was the only one who was willing to give me a chance to be something other than what I was built to be. I owe her for that. She gave her life for me and I failed her.” Nebulas voice was even and emotionless but Peter could see past that. She was like a cold metal statue on the outside but still had feelings. 

 

“You didn’t fail her… Just like I didn’t fail Tony. When we get back to Earth, we’re going to find a way to reverse all of this. This fight… It’s not over.” Peter reassured. 

 

“I came in here to attempt to comfort you, not vise versa.” Nebula insisted. 

 

“I’m not the only one that needs it. How long did I sleep for, we need to get back to work.” Peter got out of the bed and stretched for a moment. 

 

“If we keep working, we can get the ship into the atmosphere by tomorrow. We only have a weeks worth of sustenance left, unless you want to eat whatever trash the fox planned to eat. We’ll have to ration it out to last any longer, I don’t need much food but you have an enhanced metabolism and need more food to function, correct? adjustment should balance our rations out to what it would be if we were both normal. I need your help to hold up the wing while I fix it.” Nebula said, and the work continued. At least talking made Peter stop shaking from the dream. 

 

The rest of the day went fast but also slowly. Like a blink but still an eternity. It was a lot of work but when it was over, it was over for good. But they didn’t have time to take a break, they had to get off of the dead planet. After a quick trip to salvage what they could from the crash of Ebony Maw's ship and Nebulas escape pod, they prepared to take off. 

 

Peter sat in the co-pilots chair while Nebula took the primary pilots position as she had a clue what the fuck she was doing. Peter could barely even drive a normal car. Why would he need to when he just took public transportation or could web-sling everywhere? Anyway, he would only pilot if Nebula was out of commission. Which was not going to happen. 

 

If Peter wasn’t in a constant state of fear, he would’ve allowed himself to fully enjoy the view of the space ship leaving the planet. It was one of the coolest things he had ever seen but it was drastically unsaturated by the recent universe-wide tragedy. He still tried to distract himself with the beauty outside instead of dwelling on the empty loss inside of him. He tried to think about Star Wars and compare what the movies thought about space compared to what it was really like. 

 

He rambled out loud to fill the space, Nebula didn’t seem to be listening as she flew the ship. He rambled about movies about space and how realistic they would be compared to the real thing. Nebula proved that she was listening after a while when she told Peter about the few things she had learned about earth pop culture from the StarLord guy. It was all old stuff that Peter didn’t know too much about but he brought up everything he could remember. 

 

Nebula told him how Starlord, she told him that his name was Peter Quill, how his mother watched Star Wars with him so soon after it had come out. Quills mother had loved space and Nebula told him that it was because his father was technically an alien. An asshole alien that he had to eventually kill off, now that was a story that took a while to tell. It was something that belonged in a space soap opera. 

 

They took turns telling their life stories, Peter telling Nebula about the Avengers and everything that happened on earth and Nebula talking about the Kree and other alien civilizations. Eventually, their conversations got dark when she told him about what Thanos would do to her and when Peter talked about the vulture and losing Ben. 

 

Nebula was easy to talk to. She had been through worse shit than he had but she didn’t belittle his own trauma, telling him that he was too young to have those kinds of things happen to him. Peter assumed that she had been a lot younger when she was kidnapped by Thanos but she didn’t divulge. It wasn’t exactly comforting but it was a relief to tell someone that didn’t act like he was some fragile baby. 

 

The days passed quickly when they talked and didn’t focus on the time limit that their lack of resources forced. The food was actually good, the previous occupiers of the ship spent all of their time there so their food wasn’t exactly emergency food. While the ship was on autopilot, Nebula sparred with Peter, she tried to teach him how to fight rather than just rely on his instincts. She was only semi-successful. She tried. Peter was just trying to hold back his strength so he didn’t accidentally hurt her after the first time when he dented her arm. She seemed more proud than bothered and Peter just fixed it.

 

They stopped wasting their energy after their food ran out. No sparring, no excited talking, just silence, for days as Peter got weaker. He needed the food with his body as crazy as it was, and without it, he deteriorated quickly. He never complained, just suffered in silence like how everything in space seemed to be. Silent. After they ran out of food, days seemed to last for weeks. And it only got worse when they ran out of water. 

 

Every moment was painful and excruciatingly long during these times. Peter didn’t ramble, for fear of losing what moisture he had left in his body. He didn’t anxiously move around as he needed to conserve as much energy as he could. He was just able to stretch and check on whatever Nebula told him to. 

 

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the oxygen regulator broke. Not even just a little bit, but irreparably. They would need alien parts to even try to fix the complicated device. Seemingly, the only thing that worked was the heating. 

 

This was when Peter’s undying hope started to slip. He found an abandoned journal that had belonged to Peter Quill and started to write down whatever he could think of. Letters to May, letters to Ned, letters to Tony, even if he wouldn’t ever see them. 

 

Every day he would sleep longer, as being awake meant that he would feel the desperate painful hunger and thirst. He could almost feel like he was running out of air, even though the ship still had about a day's worth left. Eventually, it would be impossible to wake him up without fulfilling all of his needs. That moment came about a day away from earth. Peter’s breathing was slowing and his heartbeat was horrifically slow and only getting slower. He was going to die. 

 

Nebula was not going to let that happen. With stone-cold determination, she connected her battery to the ships. Just to make it go any fucking faster. Even by a single second. She screamed when the power arced and attempted to do its job in a less than ideal situation. Peter didn’t even stir. They were running out of time. 

 

Thankfully, they weren’t the only ones going to earth from random parts of space. Nebula encountered their savior. At first, it was just a shining light in the distance. It could’ve been mistaken for a star. Nebula didn’t think that it was that far from the truth. The light grew closer until it was revealed to be a humanoid woman. She didn’t have a helmet or anything. She got close to the glass and mouthed a question to come in. Nebula didn’t have much of a choice. They had no other options besides dying in a few more hours. 

 

Nebula met the woman when she entered the ship. She recognized her from being a destructive force against the Kree empire. It didn’t matter now. Soon, nothing would. 

 

“You need any help?” The glowing woman asked. 

 

“We need to get back to Terra. Earth. It is the boy’s home planet and he is hours away from death. We escaped Titan with not much more than our lives.” Nebula answered grimly and gestured to the limp body of Peter that looked just as close to death as he was. 

 

“Well shit… I guess I’ll give you a boost then, we’re heading to the same place anyway.” She nodded, understanding how much of an emergency this situation was. She got back outside of the space ship. She both pushed from the back and gave an energy boost with her ethereal power. Nebula didn’t know how worried she was until she was given a solution to her most urgent problem. 

 

With plenty of help from the glowing woman, they landed outside a building where she had said she got her own transmission. There were people waiting for them. Wary, sorrowful people. Nebula picked up Peter as delicately as she dared and left the ship swiftly. 

 

“We need a medical professional. This is urgent.” Nebula said, skipping any unnecessary pleasantries. A graying man raised his hand and asked her to follow him. Nebula didn’t know if she could trust anyone but she knew that there weren’t many other options. 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Peter woke up not only an oxygen mask on but two IVs, a feeding tube, and several things measuring his vitals. He felt like a building had been taken off of his back when he realized that he had survived and physically felt so much better. There was still a certain emptiness in his soul that he knew would be much harder to heal. 

 

After a quick glance at his vitals, he started to remove all of the medical devices. He ripped out the IVs and took off the tubes blowing air through his nostrils, the feeding tube that went straight into his stomach was a little harder. Peter didn’t spare it much thought when he ripped it out though. Sure it hurt but at this point, pain was a mercy. Pain meant that he was still alive and able to feel. 

 

Peter sat up and realized that he was in a thin hospital gown. Instead of barging out to find out what was going on, he remembered where he was. 

 

“FRIDAY?” He looked up as if the AI was in the ceiling. Force of habit… 

 

“Yes, boss?” She answered through the speakers. Peter noticed that she called him something other than ‘Mr. Parker’ or whatever nickname Tony gave him. 

 

“Who’s… Who’s left?” Peter stammered. 

 

“Notable survivors include Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner-” She started. 

 

“Is May…” Peter interrupted. 

 

“May Parker is part of the missing population. Babysitter protocol, the security system set up for the Parkers, showed that May Parker has yet to return from her job and has not answered her phone. I’m sorry Peter.” FRIDAY showed as much empathy as a body-less voice could. 

 

“W-What about Ned…” Peter rasped, trying to swallow the sudden sorrow. 

 

“Ned Leeds is also part of the missing population. He disappeared at decathlon practice and was counted at the school.” FRIDAYs voice was quieter and respectful. 

 

“Fuck!” Peter exclaimed with a sob as he collapsed back onto the bed. Thanos said that it was a fifty-fifty chance of anyone surviving but Peter felt like the purple asshole specifically chose which people would hurt him the most. He had no one left. He had to get them back, he didn’t know what else to do. 

 

He knew that waiting would just let the pain set in more so he didn’t hesitate to start making a plan. He knew the rest of the Avengers were here in the same building and they wouldn’t let a tragedy like this settle. They would do anything they could to avenge the universe. They had to. 

 

Peter put on the clothes set out for him and found the web-shooters that held the nano-tech Iron Spider suit. He left the empty infirmary as fast as he could. He was headed to Tony’s workshop but before he got there, his enhanced hearing caught voices. He decided to follow them because if the Avengers were there at the compound, they were probably planning on getting people back and Peter needed to be a part of it. 

 

“-Where even were you! If you have all of this power, you should’ve been helping!”

 

“Do you expect me to know everything that’s going on in the universe? You only got a headstart from your big green friend, and I was out of range to find out that Nova had been invaded. You can’t blame me for being busier than you.” 

 

“Guys, this isn’t important, we need to find a way to reverse all of this.” 

 

“What’s the fucking point! Everyone is gone! There may not even be a way to fix things!” 

 

Peter waited outside of the door before he went in. He was in a bit of a mood and he didn’t have much to lose, much less dignity. 

 

“So you just want to give up?” Peter interrupted and the heroes all turned to him, just noticing that he was there and out of his hospital bed. So many people that he had looked up to and even a few that he didn’t know that well. A bearded depressed Captain America, a blond black widow, a Bruce Banner looking smaller and grayer than usual, and a handful of other heroes that looked like they were carrying the weight of the world. 

 

“Kid-” 

 

“We all lost practically everything. Our family, our friends, everyone. I just didn’t think that it would be enough to lose ourselves. We’re Avengers, right? Fucking Avenge.” Peter growled. 

 

“Last time I checked, we don’t recruit child soldiers. Who even made you an Avenger? You’re like fifteen.” 

 

“I’m seventeen and it was one of the last things that Tony did. I may not be one hundred years old but I’m far from useless. Besides, Thanos killed my aunt, so unless one of you want to try to babysit me, you’ll let me help you.” 

 

“You’re still just a kid. This isn’t safe…” Steve said with a hint of guilt. 

 

“And fighting the most powerful being on his home planet and coming back on a broken ship starving to death is? No one is safe Mr. America. Age has nothing to do with it anymore.” 

 

“I’m sorry son,”

 

“I’m not your son.”

 

“We cannot let you be a part of this. No more blood needs to be spilled.” 

 

“The funny thing is, all this blood, or dust I guess, could’ve been prevented from being spilled if you listened to him. Now he’s gone, and I blame you. You broke the Avengers right before we really needed them. You couldn’t get your head out of your ass long enough to see past what was right in front of you. So, sure. Don’t let me help. Fine. But I am not going to sit on my ass and do nothing.”

 

“Peter… Don’t do anything stupid.” Captain America warned. Peter just smiled without any humor. 

 

“I can’t promise anything. I’m sure you’d break it anyway.” And Peter left. No one stopped him. He didn’t know if that was a bad thing or a good thing. All he knew was that they didn’t take him seriously. And that made him kind of angry. He was tired of being underestimated because he wasn’t over thirty. He hated that even though he went through hell and back, they still didn’t think he was strong enough. 

 

The workshop door opened right before he even got there. He walked in and took a moment to look at all of the things Tony left behind. Then, he moved on.

 

“FRIDAY? It’s time to start the Young Avengers Initiative. You still have all of those potential recruits on file?” He asked as dozens of holoscreens appeared around him. Each one showed a teenager just like him. With powers or potential to become someone greater. “Okay, I guess our first stop is Rosehill Tennesse. Now… does the quinjet have an autopilot or do I have to take an online piloting course before I can start showing up to teenagers houses to recruit them to be superheroes…” 

 

“If you need a pilot, you could've just asked.” An amused voice came from behind him and he spun around. It was the blonde woman that he didn’t recognize. “Oh yeah, you were unconscious when I saved you and your cyborg friend. I’m Carol.” 

 

“Uh, thanks for saving us I guess, I mean, I’d probably be dead so…” Peter shrugged. “Now, you said you can fly a Quinjet?” 

 

“That, and I’m not against you joining the fight. We’ll need all the help we can get. Even from a scrawny kid like you.” She joked. 

 

“I guess looks can be deceiving…” Peter pouted. 

 

“I’m messing with you, what’s your plan? Just… recruiting some teenage heroes?” Carol asked. 

 

“Basically. Even though I was the first Young Avenger, Tony had a whole line up of kids just like me. Kids with powers. He was planning on training them before it was too late but there wasn’t much warning for the end of the world. I’m just… completing the mission that he started.” He almost added ‘because that’s all that left’ but he didn’t. He didn’t know if he wanted to sound desperate or not. 

 

“Well, What are we waiting for?”

 

“FRIDAY, send the information to the Quinjet. The one Mr. Stark designed for the Young Avengers rather than the normal ones. That way we have the right costumes in storage.” Peter waved the holographic screens away. “You know the only reason I’m trusting that you’re not a babysitter sent by the Avengers is because none of them know you and they would’ve sent Nebula or Rhodey. Or I’m just an idiot and letting myself have a superhero chaperone.” He shrugged. He didn’t mind not being alone, besides, for some reason, Carol reminded him of Tony. 

 

“Well, no one can tell me what to do, but you might need someone to catch you if you fall.” She replied as he led them to the hanger. 

 

“I don’t fall.” Peter smiled as the door opened on FRIDAY's command. Holographic screens popped up and lights appeared dramatically over brightly colored suits made for each Young Avenger. There were two iron suits, a skintight suit with a dramatic red cape, a purple outfit fitted with plenty of belts and pockets, a smaller black panther suit, and a handful more superhero worthy costumes. 

 

Carol sat down in the pilot's seat and Peter sat in the co-pilots seat and they took off to give the universe a chance.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn't my best work but I couldn't help but barf it out. If you want a part two with the young avengers and actual plot, please comment!


End file.
